title="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/23/australians-travelling-to-fight-in-no-go-zones-could-face-life-imprisonment CTRL + Click to follow link">Australia: Harsh national security bill creates four offences that carry penalties of life imprisonment
23 Sept 2014 Australians face life imprisonment if they prepare to travel overseas to engage in hostile activities, as part of the most significant overhaul of the nation’s counter-terrorism laws in a decade. The federal government released its second national security bill on Tuesday evening, arguing the changes were needed to respond to the threat posed by citizens travelling to Iraq and Syria to join Islamic State (Isis) [I-CIA-SIS] fighters. The bill seeks to repeal the current regime of laws used to prosecute people in favour of a far more punishing act that creates four offences that carry penalties of life imprisonment…In a separate offence that requires a lower threshold of evidence, an entire country can be declared a “no-go zone” that could see entrants to the country jailed for 10 years if they cannot point to a legitimate reason for their trip. The new offence would criminalise a person entering or remaining in a “declared area” by the foreign affairs minister if they enter or remain in an area that have been proscribed.
title="http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/sep/22/abbott-reduction-in-freedom-necessary-to-save-lives-from-terrorism-threat CTRL + Click to follow link">Abbott: reduction in freedom necessary to save lives from terrorism threat
22 Sept 2014 Australians must accept a reduction in freedom and an increase in security “for some time to come” to save lives from the significant threat of terrorism, Tony Abbott has told parliament. The prime minister asked Australians to support a shift in “the delicate balance between freedom and security” as he sought to bolster his case for the biggest overhaul of the nation’s counterterrorism laws in a decade. In an address to parliament on Monday, Abbott also rejected suggestions the domestic terrorism threat would be aggravated by the deployment of 600 Australian Defence Force (ADF) members to the Middle East to fight Islamic State (Isis) militants.